BOBBING on the waves 12 miles out in the Channel, the party of astonished Dover fishermen watched as the rickety migrant dinghy puttered past.
Desperately overloaded, the little boat chugging through the world’s busiest shipping lanes had been safely escorted into British waters by the French patrol ship Fourmentin.
Fishing boat skipper Matt Cocker, 44, told me: “We had a lull with the migrant boats earlier in the year but now it’s got really busy again.”
The dinghy that passed the UK crew was part of a nine-strong flotilla ferrying 492 migrants here on Saturday.
Despite them taking power just weeks ago, Labour’s pledge to “smash” the smuggling gangs is already coming under close scrutiny.
Some 5,700 migrants have arrived by small boat since Keir Starmer took office — while the Government has yet to appoint a leader for its much-vaunted Border Security Command.
On Monday, there were more chaotic scenes off the historic port of Grand-Fort-Philippe near Dunkirk, which has become a “black spot” for violent confrontations between migrants and cops.
A police launch pulled up alongside an overcrowded dinghy around 100 metres from the beach at 7.30am, yet it was allowed to continue on its way.
That day, three more boats carrying 206 people made it into British waters.
The mayor of the French port has warned that skirmishes between migrants and the authorities are turning into “urban guerilla warfare”.
Not far from the so-called New Jungle in Loon-Plage, Grand-Fort-Philippe has a waterway running through it to the sea.
Its banks have been used by smugglers to launch dinghies, while the extensive sand dunes that fringe the beaches close to the town provide cover for migrants waiting to make a dash for their allotted inflatable.
Last week, around 50 migrants were blocked from boarding a dinghy by gendarmes.
It led to a scuffle on the beach which spilled out into residential streets in the town, which has a population of around 5,000.
A similar incident the previous evening had seen cars and homes damaged after being pelted with rocks.
Mayor Sony Clinquart said: “The population is exasperated, and is legitimately afraid.”
Patrice Vergriete, president of Dunkirk’s district council, said police officers had been subjected to “acts of provocation and intolerable aggression”.
Charities claim French police employ violence, which is also becoming increasingly common.
Salome Bahri, from Utopia 56, said: “The baton blows, the tear gas attacks, the punctured boats — this is nothing new. What is new is the recurrence and intensity of violence.”
No migrant was arrested during the recent disturbances. A local police spokesman said: “The trouble was contained — that was the priority.”
Officers believe smugglers are encouraging migrants to “fight the police” in order to “leave the country as quickly as possible”.
A senior French officer told The Sun: “It is a desperate situation. There is only so much we can do to police the migrants.
“Arrests are discouraged because of the time and effort it takes to process migrants, who will be freed to continue their journeys no matter what happens.”
Now reinforcements have been drafted into Grand-Fort-Philippe to reassure locals.
This week, police vans were stationed on both sides of the river as the sun came up.
Frederic Loiseau, a senior local government official in Dunkirk, said: “We have observed increasing aggression towards the police, who are forced to intervene physically and put themselves in danger.
“They have to try to dissuade the immigrants from taking risks and injuring themselves and the police.”
Despite hundreds of millions spent on tackling the people-traffickers and preventing boats leaving France, the deadly industry seems to be becoming more streamlined and profitable.
Home Office figures show an average of 51 people now arrive on each boat — up from 44 last year and just ten in 2019.
The callous overcrowding of dinghies has led to some 25 migrants perishing while trying to cross the Channel this year alone.
At the sprawling New Jungle camp, migrants said a place on a boat costs around £1,300 to £1,400.
It means, on average, each boat is grossing more than £70,000 for the smuggling gangs.
There’s just too much money involved When one smuggler is arrested, another is there to take their place.
I’ve heard promises about smashing the gangs before, but the boats still keep on coming.
Fishing boat skipper Matt Cocker
Amid the rotting food and strewn rubbish, Iraqi Narwan, 36, said he, his wife and young kids had already had one crossing bid thwarted by cops.
He revealed: “We were carrying the dinghy to the beach on our heads when the police fired tear gas at us.
“The gas was in my eight-year-old’s eyes. I screamed at the police, ‘What are you doing? We’re trying to leave your country’.
“They said ‘We’re trying to stop you risking your lives’.
“But me and my family will keep trying until we make it to Britain.
This week, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged to deport 14,500 migrants in the next six months as she fleshed out her border strategy.
Returns deals have been signed with countries including Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Serbia and Georgia.
Waiting for a charity to bring food handouts at the New Jungle, a labourer from Amritsar, India, revealed he was one of 60 of his countrymen living at the camp.
The 26-year-old, who declined to give a name, told me: “I want to go to Britain because it’s difficult to find a job in India and the wages are too low.”
An Afghani who has spent much of his life in the UK said the new Labour government is “good” for migrants.
Saying his name was Imran, the shop worker and resident of Longsight, Manchester, sneaked out of Britain in a lorry to meet his brother, who was trying to fix a place on a Channel crossing.
Manchester United fan Imran, 32, said: “I love Britain. I arrived aged 14 and was taken in by a foster family. But I still don’t have papers to travel.”
Calling ex-PM Rishi Sunak “racist”, he added: “His family are immigrants, but he wanted to send people like me to Rwanda.
“Labour is good for immigrants and aren’t racist.”
With no travel papers, he will try to re-cross the Channel undercover to resume his life in the UK.
Despite being continually raided by cops, the New Jungle remains a smuggler-infested way station.
Jackson Arop, 26, from Sudan, said he is escaping civil war in his homeland, adding: “I want to go to Britain because I speak English. I have no money for a boat.”
Iran-born Mohammad Yagobi, 26, revealed he was quoted just under £1,400 for a berth on a dinghy.
“I know it’s dangerous,” he said. “But I want to start my life again in Britain.”
While we spoke, three scowling, thick-set Kurdish men who seemed to be in control of the row of tent shops at the camp told us not to point a camera at them.
As in recent visits, I spoke to several migrants who had failed to claim asylum in other European countries and were now trying their luck in the UK.
The desperation etched on the faces of those living among the camp’s fetid squalor reveals why the people-smuggling trade is so difficult to curb.
The Government plans to “smash the gangs” with its new Border Security Command, which will have “counter terror-style powers”.
Yvette Cooper will press ahead with the last government’s plan to reopen two immigration centres in a bid to achieve the highest rate of removals since Theresa May’s premiership.
This week, the Home Secretary announced 100 new National Crime Agency officers — the first tranche of up to 1,000 to be recruited.
They will be deployed across Europe to work with Europol and other agencies trying to take apart the smuggling networks.
Tory leadership contender and shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly said Labour’s plans do not “scratch the surface” now they have ditched the Rwanda “deterrent”.
Fishing boat skipper Matt Cocker — who has watched the dinghy phenomenon multiply from the odd boat in the Channel to a full-blown industry — also is not convinced.
“There’s just too much money involved,” he said. “When one smuggler is arrested, another is there to take their place.
“I’ve heard promises about smashing the gangs before, but the boats still keep on coming.”
